Endings

 It's the last day of 2022 today. Also today we took DS back to his apartment so we are back to being empty nesters.  Despite DH remaining stubbornly positive for COVID all week, DS insisted he wanted to go back today in the car being driven by DH.  Being young and immortal, and having had COVID himself fairly lightly a few months ago, DS judged it to be a low risk experience. Let's hope he's right, and he doesn't end up getting it again or giving it to his girlfriend.  

DH has been testing every morning and then being depressed about the persistent line.  We had to cancel the family get together with his parents and sister and felt bad about that until they phoned up the next night to announce that they all had COVID as well. It is unknown whether the in-laws gave it to my sister in law or vice versa but they've all got it now. So it's just as well we couldn't go down.  So the Christmas holiday remained strange throughout, with DH having to stay away from DS and eat in a separate room from him, and we couldn't go out for a meal together or anything.  But we feel fortunate that DS stayed well and DH and I weren't very ill with it.

Freed from the daily grind of having to put in time on the quilt frame (I'm ignoring the subsequent pile of quilts needing binding), I've been enjoying dabbling in various other crafts over the holiday.

I finished the Bruge lace sample I started months ago, which is half one design and half from another - it's not meant to look pretty, the purpose was to learn the two different filling patterns and frames.  So the join is pretty messy. Now I can move on to the next chapter in the book which is ten different flowers.

I actually fired up my Brother Scan N Cut and cut out a 3D angel christmas tree ornament from a free .svg download, which is kind of cute.

I made a bunch of dollshouse pillows for my friend Anita, who is making a Chinese room box.  She sent over the shiny brocade fabric she wanted me to use for the front, and I used a matching cotton for the back to cut down on the bulk in the seams. To avoid having to handsew this heavily fraying brocade, I glued the final seam with Fabrictac which worked quite well.

I finished Month 17 of the Australian BOM.  I've now started the final embroidery packet in Month 18 which is two small blocks.  Month 19 and the final month 20 have both arrived, they include the fabric for creating the sashing around the blocks and the final quilt borders.  So that's another ending coming up - I've been working on this quilt almost every evening since early 2021 when I signed up as a treat during COVID.

I sewed a snack pocket into my travel backpack (no photo because it's not that interesting) so that my gluten free snacks won't keep disappearing underneath all the other stuff I carry when travelling.

I finished opening up my Cotton Cuts fabric advent calendar, so 24 more FQs to go into the stash.  It's rather an odd mix - at first it was all tangerine reds and lights and I thought it was going to be a two-colour quilt's worth.  But then it diverged into various other colours that aren't exactly harmonious.  It was fun having something to open every day.

Most random of all - I actually went into my dollshouse room and started a new project.  I had that porch vignette shell kit that I got from the dollshouse haul a while back.  For my Christmas present, my friend Anita passed on to me various components she hadn't used when she made the same kit: windows, a door, porch railings etc. for me to use with mine.  I've decided to make a Christmas-decorated porch.  Once I got over the shock of how big it all was (I haven't worked in 1/12th scale for a long time), I started work.

Sanding pieces, making the window openings taller, and cutting out an access port to

access the under-porch

Glueing together the shell - never enough clamps.

first coat of paint on the windows/door, and what I am using as clapboard (it's actually roofing sheets- I thought I had clapboard but I don't)

Glueing the porch floor and roof.

The basic shell

Painting the sash windows was just as annoying in 2022 as it was back in 1993 when I painted the similar windows in my big house - these windows don't come apart for painting, are already tight in their frame so the paint just makes it worse. and it's really hard not to get paint on the glass.  You would have thought improvements would have been made in 30 years.  I've decided I won't be opening the windows so I'm not worrying about locking them up with paint.  I've ordered some verandah posts so I need to wait for those to arrive before I can work out where the porch roof is going to sit.  The UK post is still hugely delayed because of the strikes and the christmas rush - I've received a couple of belated christmas cards this week.

Now that DS is gone, and won't be back for at least a few months, I have seized the opportunity to pull all of my quilts out of their cupboard and shake out their folds and let them relax on the guest bed for a while.  Rather than make multiple trips up and down the stairs with armfuls of heavy quilts, I just dropped them all over the banister onto the stairs.

Then with DH's help, we spread them all out onto the bed.  People keep asking how many I have, so we kept count.  There are 25 bed quilts here (plus two more on my bed) and 9 larger wallhangings.  I'm not counting the various other family quilts, TV quilts, windowseat quilts etc. littered around the house and with DS. And there is a drawer of smaller wall hangings. It's been quite a while since the bed quilts all got out the cupboard, some of them are quite wrinkled. In fact I can't remember the last time, possibly before COVID. oops. Bad quilt owner.  I do cycle various quilts onto my bed every month through the winter, and hang up others in the downstairs hallway.

So I hope you all had a nice holiday break, received some good crafty gifts, and my best wishes for 2023, whatever it brings us.  I can't believe I'm going to Japan in just over four months, suddenly it doesn't feel so comfortably far in the future.

A strange week

 I've had my cold all week (I've still got it) and on Monday I tested positive for COVID even though it just felt like a cold. Luckily I hadn't gone in the car to pick up DS on Sunday so he has managed to stay negative so far (touch wood).  So I had to isolate in a few rooms (one of them my sewing room of course) until Wednesday when DH also tested positive.  DS has nobly stepped up to the plate and looked after the cooking and shopping.  I'm now testing negative (yesterday and today) so now I get to eat and associate with DS apart from I don't want to give him my cold.  We're hoping DH will test negative soon.  So despite having DS home all week (he's been working from the dining room, just like old times) it hasn't really been a family get together.  One day we even held a Discord call so we could all talk together from our computers  ha ha ha.  One weird side effect is I lost my sense of taste and to a certain extent smell a few days ago.  It might be coming back, I could detect hints of cheese at lunch today when I ate my jacket potato with cheese.  I hope so or Christmas dinner is going to be a bit of a waste of time!

Last Sunday I made a big push and finished the Tannenbaum quilting on the frame.  It's quilted with a simple holly leaf panto.

As soon as the quilt was off, I started taking the frame down.  DH helped bring up the storage boxes from the sewing room, and also helped me lift the poles off and wrap them up and we took them up to the attic.  I spent a few hours taking things apart, then DH helped with the final disassembly of the table and by mid-evening it was all gone!  The dining room seemed so much bigger and we can use the door again.  We put the furniture back into place and I put up some more christmas decorations in that room, and for 12 hours or so it looked really beautiful until it became DS's home office the next morning.  He was in there all week but has now cleared out again and we have the dining room back.

I haven't felt up to doing very much this week as you can imagine.  I've been plodding along on Month 17 of the Australian BOM.  The final instalment number 20 has now shipped and a few people in Australia who got it quickly are already putting their quilt tops together.  I feel like I'm being left behind but DH says it's not a race (except it is. and I'm losing, grrrr).  I also spent some time this week making a tester version of a tote bag but I can't show photos of that as the designer isn't releasing the pattern until the new year. I sewed part of it on my new industrial machine which once again sewed through like butter even a seam junction with 3 layers of vinyl, 2 of Bosal foam, and 2 layers of interfaced quilting cotton.

Christmas Day will be quiet with just the three of us, but if we can all test negative and get healthy then we will go down to see DH's parents at some point before New Year.  

Best wishes of the season to you, and I hope you have a relaxing holiday time.

Was it worth it?

 I got back late last night from Poland and am today struggling with the heavy head cold I acquired at some point.  I had three pleasant days in Wroclaw - but only at the cost of two absolutely horrendous travel days at either end plus a lot of additional expense. So I question if the trip was actually worth it.  It has certainly exploded the myth of being 'able to pop over to Europe for a short jaunt'.

Having gone down to Heathrow the day before (and discovered that the HotelHoppa bus is horrendous - 25 min wait in the cold to catch it, then it stops at every hotel over 40 minutes before finally reaching mine), I got up at 5:15am to catch the bus back to the airport.  Only when it arrived, it was already full so wouldn't let us on.  An entrepeneurial mini-bus driver rescued us for a fee, and took us to the terminal which was quite busy due to the holidays and the weather conditions causing a lot of cancellations.  Trudged through Security and got on the plane fine, then we were delayed 40 minutes by - of all things- the inability to fit all the carryon luggage into the upper compartments.  The staff were playing puzzle pieces trying to fit it all in, and begging a largely unresponsive audience to put things under their seats, while stroppy latecomers blocked the aisles.  The upshot was that we arrived late to Frankfurt where I was meant to be connecting.  Several of us started running through the terminal to the connecting gate, only to find that it was miles and up and down stairs etc. and routed us through a big passport control queue and then, of all things, back through a chaotic and understaffed Security check for a second time.  That took ages and when I finally arrived sick from running at the gate, I had missed the flight out by 20 minutes.  The next one wasn't for nine hours.  So I spent 9 hours in Frankfurt airport, having to book an additional hotel night and taxi for Wroclaw since I would be arriving at almost midnight - too late to catch the bus into the town or to be looking for my rented apartment in the dark.

The journey back was delayed due to the ice and snowy conditions - an hour delays out of Wroclaw meant more running in Munich airport for my connection (thankfully only passport control this time) and I was the last person to run onto the plane as they were calling final boarding.  Only for us to sit on the plane for 3.5 hours waiting for a takeoff slot inbetween de-icing and snow clearance .  I had read all my books and only had one cereal bar to eat.  My mobile data connection was tortuously slow but eventually I was able to partially download one Kindle book to read - for some odd reason it only downloaded clumps of 4-5 pages then would skip a page but at least it was better than nothing.  The delay meant that when I finally arrived back at Heathrow, I had missed the coach I had booked to get home during the rail strike, so DH had to nobly drive two hours down to Heathrow to collect me - and bring a packed supper because I was starving.  No refund for the coach ticket and of course the cost of the petrol.

Anyway, first world problems. At least I was safe and warm enough and my carryon bag stayed with me. Kudos to the men and women that keep it all moving during really challenging conditions.

The Christmas market in Wroclaw was fun, and quite spectacular at night all lit up.  It wasn't as germanic as I was subconsciously expecting.  It was certainly a much higher standard than the plasticky tawdry UK markets I've been to, and all the stalls and drinking dens were beautifully constructed from real wood.  Most of the stands were selling (no doubt overpriced) real goods such as sausages, cheeses, handcrafts, ornaments, baked goods etc.  The setting is very picturesque although I found out that almost everything I saw in Wroclaw had been reconstructed after the devastating bombing during WWII. The market sprawls around the old Town Hall and into adjoining streets and squares. My guide said it is the biggest market in Poland.

 I had booked a walking tour the first morning which took me around the main sights in the old town and out to the cathedral on its island. Daytime temperatures varied from -8C up to -1C and I was perfectly warm in what I had packed.  It snowed off and on and there was a light dusting of snow and ice everywhere. On the second day, I walked out to see Kolejkowo: a miniature world of model railways and Wroclaw landmarks.  It was quite fun with incredible amounts of detail.  Towards the end of the loop around the big room, I discovered there were buttons to push to make things happen like cranes to go up and down, or chickens to scrabble around under a tree - so I had to go around again to push all the buttons. There was also a day/night cycle, and when the buildings were lit up you could see loads more going on inside them.

A miniture of the town hall

Because of the season, there was a temporary exhibition of a huge gingerbread house village - it looked like real gingerbread and real icing so the work in it was incredible.

Town hall again, this time in gingerbread

In a Polish handicraft store, I found this tree covered in tatted stars and rounds, each selling for less than £2 each and beautifully made.  I bought one of the stars.

In the cathedral gift shop, I found a tree shaped candle. And in the Market Hall, this charming porcelain tree which holds a tealight.

A few other random acquisitions: some fridge magnets for my collection, some serviettes featuring tatting on baubles, and some sew-in leatherette tags for use on handcrafts.

Three days was plenty of time to see almost all the main sights and some museums, and to do lots of walking. I doubt any city looks its best in mid-December, and I think Wroclaw must be a lot more pleasant at other points in the year with all its rivers and bridges and parks.  I only really saw the old town and adjacent city - when I went up to a couple of viewpoints on towers, you could see that the modern city goes on for miles.  It's a budget destination, everything is very reasonably priced - I can see why so many Poles come over to work in Britain (there are quite a few Poles here in Northamptonshire) to earn in pounds sterling.  Admission to museums was under £2, a bus ticket was about .50p, a filling lunch for under £8, my comfortable apartment was only about £50 a night.

Anyway, I'm glad to be home, and to be recuperating in my own house.  DS will join us soon for Christmas.  Today I'm hoping to finish the Tannenbaum quilt on the frame and start taking it down.  

I hope you are all ready for Christmas (if you celebrate) and looking forward to a happy holiday.

Busy busy

 It's been a bit of a hectic week, not helped by a flare up of my food intolerances and consequent feebleness.  

We got the tree last weekend so hauled all the decorations down from the attic and I spent several hours putting most of those up around the house.  I had some friends coming on Thursday so that was my deadline to have at least the public spaces decorated, which I managed. The tree isn't as tall this year so I couldn't get all the ornaments on, I prioritised my handmade ones and ones with special memories.

I've been ploughing ahead with the quilt frame as I am determined to get it down before Christmas.  I loaded and basted the Lone Star that has been kicking around since before the last time I had the frame up five years ago.  Before basting it, I drew in some simple straight line quilting in the open spaces that I will be able to do with my walking foot.

Then I loaded on the final quilt, Tannenbaum, which appropriately is a Christmas quilt.  I'm quilting it with a purchased holly leaf panto.  I've already started taking stuff downstairs that I won't need any longer.  The remaining part of the roll of wadding, more than half I think, has been wrapped in a sheet and has gone on top of my wardrobe in my room to await the next incarnation of the frame.

Earlier in the week I did a two-hour online workshop with the Quilter's Guild to make a traditional Japanese bag.  I used some of the fabric left over from the summer yukata I bought in Kyoto that I made into pyjama bottoms.  I only had some gold cord so that's what I used, but I think it looks too heavy.  I have since picked up some pink ribbon on a charity table so I will likely switch that over.  It's an easy bag to make - I am considering making some in British themed fabric to take as gifts to Japan.

Then last night I joined a live Craftsy workshop for two hours to sew a pair of cosy slippers.  That was a bit slow, it was over an hour before they finally got through the cutting out and discussion of fabrics and got to the sewing part. But I finished one slipper and tried it on and realised the sole is too long for my foot, so I will need to do some ripping back and trimming.  I used some IKEA fleece blanket for the inside and some left over wool coating for the outer.

Today we went to see DS and stopped in at IKEA on the way for a few things.  I was expecting a mob scene but it was strangely quiet for a Saturday, much less a Saturday before Christmas.  Perhaps the intense cold (high of 4 degrees today, and yesterday the frost lasted all day) and the cost of petrol is keeping people home.  We were done so quickly that we had to go back in for a cup of tea in the cafe to kill time before descending on DS.

I'm trying to decide what to wear and pack for a trip to Poland on Monday, where it is predicted to be below freezing all week.  It's only going to be a few degrees below freezing, nothing compared to where I lived for a while in Canada. But I've forgotten what I used to wear in Canada.  So I've been testing out various thermal garments, coats and hats by popping outside and walking around the block a bit to see how they feel.  I'm going to visit a traditional European Christmas market in Wroclaw, another thing that was on my bucket list.  Only they are predicting snow in the UK so I hope that doesn't affect Heathrow airport.  Plus the day I get back is a national train strike, and the following day, so I'm having to get a slow and expensive coach part of the way home until DH can meet me late at night.  I'm also having to go down to Heathrow tomorrow and stay overnight at an airport hotel to catch my flight the next day.  It will be nice when they invent teleportation and you don't have to lose a full day or more  to the stressful  'getting there' part. Hopefully the market experience will be worth it.  I've never been to Poland before.  Which reminds me - I need to look up a few Polish words like please and thank you!

Sprinting for the finish line

 It was late May that I started to unpack and assemble my quilt frame in the dining room.  Six months later and I have now quilted 13 quilts on it, mostly bed size.  This was the latest to come off the frame: the Spindrift BOM quilt which is nautical themes, so I used a panto that suggests wind or sea.

As you can see on the reverse, somewhat wobbly quilting but hey, done is better than perfect.

Yesterday I loaded up my 30s Sampler quilt and basted it on the frame with my Microstitch gun (which jammed and eventually broke completely) supplemented with safety pins. It needs to be quilted at the sit down machine but it's so much easier to baste it on the frame, it took less than three hours and so much easier on my back.  I find the microstitch tacks don't lock the layers together completely, since they have a little play in them, so I run a line of safety pins across every time I roll on the quilt, for security.

And today, similarly, I loaded up the Giggleswick Di Ford quilt and basted it as well (using the replacement gun delivered by Amazon Prime this morning).  Yesterday I found the Hobbs Heirloom wadding was sticking to itself when I tried to use the fourth roller , so today I just floated both the top and the wadding.

That leaves one more quilt to baste (a Lone Star) and one more quilt to actually quilt on the frame (Tannenbaum) and then I think I can take the frame down just in time for Christmas.  There were a few other odds and ends I was thinking of doing on the frame, like the pumpkin placemats I bought in Italy, but they aren't worth keeping the frame up for.  It will be nice to reclaim the dining room after six months. And it will make decorating for Christmas a lot easier.

This week I assembled the 2nd re-knit of the Aldi boucle t-shirt jumper and it actually fits this time.  The shoulders are hanging off my shoulder point a little too widely, but I haven't knitted the neckline  yet so I can draw up the neckline a bit when I add the neckband.  The front and back of this jumper were knitted twice, and the sleeves three times (six sleeves in total) so there is a lot of knitting time in this!  I did knit a tension swatch but to no avail, the first attempt was huge on me so I ended up tweaking the fit the hard way - by making it, trying it on, and knitting it again.  I hope I actually wear it next summer.

 I used the beast in the attic (BITA for short?) to finish making the tote bag I started on the last day of the bag retreat back in October.  The project had been sitting around because I didn't want to risk sewing the layers with my Janome 8200 in case it threw out the timing again.  This is an adaptation of a backpack pattern, it's 8 inches deep so will hold all my craft projects, books and pastimes when we go caravanning. BITA behaved impeccably throughout the sewing.  Afterwards I sewed a simple machine cover to keep the dust off the machine when I'm not using it.

And I added the finishing touches to the Heart shaped spool wreath that I blogged last week - the hanging ribbon and a bow.  I'm pleased with how it's turned out.  It's Christmassy but not overly so, it could be used year round.

When I was looking for fabric to make a few more folding pouches (same pattern as the one I blogged last week, but I made a longer one for tools and a smaller one for klips), I came across some Japanese-themed fabric and decided to make a pencil bag to take to my language school in Japan.  The pattern is from a free Youtube tutorial. The pouch is only stabilised with iron-on fleece so I was able to sew it on my normal machine.

Last night we went to a Christmas Tree Festival at a beautiful old church in town with an unusual round shape.

One of the parishioners had produced this knitted tour de force of the 12 Days of Christmas, including appropriate numbers of each character - a lot of knitting!

A simple knitted angel on another tree - probably knitted all in one piece as a cone shape, and just the head stuffed then the neck tied off.

Being as how it is now December, we have started to put up decorations - starting with advent calendars, the door wreath, the lights today, and we bought a tree.  The garden has been unseasonably green until recently even though it's now pretty cold out (5 or 6 degrees C in the daytime), and somehow it feels too early still for Christmas.  I've been enjoying a fabric advent calendar I treated myself to, from Cotton Cuts, an American online fabric store that a quilter at the Coventry retreat regularly uses.  Each day has a little brown packet with an FQ in it (or maybe a fat eighth, can't remember) so it's a little treat every morning.  Because I need more fabric.